I cringe at the thought of the Isles blueline without Streit or Visnovsky....and in terms of "pipeline"? c'mon. Ness? May as well say Wishart.

Everyone else is years away from MAYBE being NHL players and MAYBE being any good - likely 5-6 years away from possibly being as good as Streit and Visnovsky.

I'd offer BOTH Streit and Visnovsky big dollars on 2-3 year deals to keep them. Last thing we need is more icetime for the overworked and overmatched Hamonic and MacDonald....who some genius decided should also be used on the PP.
#disaster

And consider this, even with those two dmen, the Isles still need to go 17-7 to make the playoffs this year. Which is, hmm...how do you say.....unrealistic.

I cringe at the thought of the Isles blueline without Streit or Visnovsky....and in terms of "pipeline"? c'mon. Ness? May as well say Wishart.

Everyone else is years away from MAYBE being NHL players and MAYBE being any good - likely 5-6 years away from possibly being as good as Streit and Visnovsky.

I'd offer BOTH Streit and Visnovsky big dollars on 2-3 year deals to keep them. Last thing we need is more icetime for the overworked and overmatched Hamonic and MacDonald....who some genius decided should also be used on the PP.
#disaster

And consider this, even with those two dmen, the Isles still need to go 17-7 to make the playoffs this year. Which is, hmm...how do you say.....unrealistic.

Is there anyone who doesn't know, that Vis had to be dragged kicking and screaming to LI? That it's a very good bet that he only spends this one season playing for the NYI?

So, the isles should deal Streit and count on Mayfield in the NCAA, Ness who's underwhemling in the AHL, Matt Donovan in the AHL, or Griffin Reinhart in juniors, to step into the Isles 2013-2014 top 4? Yikes.

Yeah, no offense to that website, but I'm pretty sure I can speculate as well as them, and write as well as them. Just a bunch of hockey fans who started a site and called themselves writers. The site should be called hockeyfans.com

Is there anyone who doesn't know, that Vis had to be dragged kicking and screaming to LI? That it's a very good bet that he only spends this one season playing for the NYI?

So, the isles should deal Streit and count on Mayfield in the NCAA, Ness who's underwhemling in the AHL, Matt Donovan in the AHL, or Griffin Reinhart in juniors, to step into the Isles 2013-2014 top 4? Yikes.

I'm pretty sure Matt Donovan 2 years ago could give us what Mark Streit is giving us now. DOnovan is a much better player than he was back then. He's fully developed in the amateur and AHL ranks. For all intents and purposes, he's a graduate student now. I have no worries about him when he gets called up, None.

Streit is okay for a PP specialist and depth defenceman, but far from irreplaceable as he is often portrayed here. I said this before, if he wants and demands three years, he can take a hike. (And if he holds on to those demands, he is going to find himself voting himself off the Island) Snow will do what he needs to do with him.

I'm pretty sure Matt Donovan 2 years ago could give us what Mark Streit is giving us now. DOnovan is a much better player than he was back then. He's fully developed in the amateur and AHL ranks. For all intents and purposes, he's a graduate student now. I have no worries about him when he gets called up, None.

Streit is okay for a PP specialist and depth defenceman, but far from irreplaceable as he is often portrayed here. I said this before, if he wants and demands three years, he can take a hike. (And if he holds on to those demands, he is going to find himself voting himself off the Island) Snow will do what he needs to do with him.

Considering that the isles are in extension talks with Streit, I'd say Snow disagrees.

I cringe at the thought of the Isles blueline without Streit or Visnovsky....and in terms of "pipeline"? c'mon. Ness? May as well say Wishart.

Everyone else is years away from MAYBE being NHL players and MAYBE being any good - likely 5-6 years away from possibly being as good as Streit and Visnovsky.

I'd offer BOTH Streit and Visnovsky big dollars on 2-3 year deals to keep them. Last thing we need is more icetime for the overworked and overmatched Hamonic and MacDonald....who some genius decided should also be used on the PP.
#disaster

And consider this, even with those two dmen, the Isles still need to go 17-7 to make the playoffs this year. Which is, hmm...how do you say.....unrealistic.

Not for nothing but Hickey as been our best D-man far and away the last 5 or 6 games.

Streit is extremely overrated. Hes a poor defensive defensemen and Vis is much better offensively. Let him go and call up Donavan who is basically the same type of player. THis team needs a stay at home defensemen in the worst way.

Streit is extremely overrated. Hes a poor defensive defensemen and Vis is much better offensively. Let him go and call up Donavan who is basically the same type of player. THis team needs a stay at home defensemen in the worst way.

Streit's playing with a bad knee, that the doctor's have told him will only heal with rest. Instead of going on IR, he's trying to hep the isles make the playoffs in this shortened season.

and with Carkner + Brian Strait,the Isles have their stay at home defensemen. Unfortunately, both are on IR.

Streit is extremely overrated. Hes a poor defensive defensemen and Vis is much better offensively. Let him go and call up Donavan who is basically the same type of player. THis team needs a stay at home defensemen in the worst way.

He's not someone I would choose to build a contender around but he is one of two legit NHL defenseman the Isles have. To push him aside for YET ANOTHER wet-behind-the-ears rookie who will be in over his head is laughable. Though typical around here.

Streit is extremely overrated. Hes a poor defensive defensemen and Vis is much better offensively. Let him go and call up Donavan who is basically the same type of player. THis team needs a stay at home defensemen in the worst way.

Just because the Isles need a stay at home dman does not mean Streit is expendable. Mark Streit, if put on a team with a better on-ice structure has the potential to be a top 10 scorer amongst dmen.

He has been paired with Finley for most of the year. Finley has been getting progressively better as the year goes on, but he is still a bottom pair dman at best at this point of his career. Dmen are very dependent on system and their defense partner. You have to look no further than Shea Weber, arguably the leagues best dman the last couple of years. Last year, he put up 19-30-49 in 78 gp. This year he would be on pace for 10-20-30 in 78 gp. That's quite a drop off, and a lot of that has to do with the loss of Ryan Suter.

Unfortunately, Capuano has not shown any creativity to maximize on each of his dmen's potential:

For instance, Visnovsky has been paired with Hickey. Why? Both dmen are under 6 feet tall, and do not at all complement each others strengths. Visnovsky would be better off with an AMac or Hamonic. However, even though the AMac/Hamonic tandem has been a combined -24 on the season as the top shutdown d-pair, Capuano has not broken up this pair. How many shutdown pairs are a combined -24? It's clear this pairing is not working. Time to break them up. I would pair Visnovsky with Hamonic, and Streit with AMac. As a third pair, you could have Hickey with Finley/Martinek. The Isles don't need to have a pretend shutdown pair.

Furthermore, the Isles biggest issue is organized breakouts from own zone. Watching the game last night, they consistently threw the puck blindly to the boards. There were very few organized attempts to get the puck out of the zone. This is a systems issue. The Isles need to develop a system that requires less hoping that the puck gets out of the zone, and more goal-oriented efforts to do so. This, IMO is the biggest issue the Isles need to fix going forward. Unfortunately, this is a coaching issue, and one I'm not sure Capuano is equipped to fix.